Checkpoints help keep cyclists safe

A collaborative effort between Sussex Cyclists and state transportation officials is helping to save the lives of those who cycle along the Route 1 corridor.

For the past three years, under the hot sun, giving up Saturday mornings and even at night, volunteers, including those from Sussex Cyclists, and Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) staff have manned bicycle safety checkpoints.

Thousands of cyclists have stopped at the checkpoints. Volunteers inflated tires, fixed brakes, adjusted handlebars, distributed reflectors and lights, and gave out free helmets.

The majority of those have been foreign students who work in the Cape Region during the summer who use bicycles as their main source of transportation. One of the main reasons for safety checkpoints was the influx of foreign students riding bicycles not following the rules of the road.

“We initiated the program several years ago because of the concerns of the death of a Polish woman,” said Tony Pezone, president of Sussex Cyclists.

The program started out as a one-day event. “But we didn’t have the interaction with the kids and we needed to go out where they were,” Pezone said. The checkpoints along Cape Region roads were born.

Riders who stop at the checkpoints are given the rules of the road – in several different languages – and bike repairs are made on the spot. And apparently, it’s helped. There has not been a fatal bicycle accident in the busy Route 1 corridor in the Rehoboth-Lewes area since the checkpoints began.

“We believe it has helped,” said Anthony Aglio, DelDOT bike and pedestrian coordinator. “There have been fewer accidents and fewer serious accidents along the Route 1 corridor. We can’t take total credit for it, but I think the checkpoints have helped.”

Pezone agreed. “Our goal is to be out there and save lives,” he said. “We have been criticized that we only cater to international students, but that’s not true. We help anyone who rides by - it just so happens there are more foreign students.”

At least 1,000 at checkpoints

This past year 15 checkpoints, usually set up on both sides of the road, took place in various Cape Region locations including 10 checkpoints on Route 1, two on Rehoboth Avenue and one each in Bethany Beach, Fenwick Island and Ocean View.

The checkpoints are a joint project among Sussex Cyclists, DelDOT, Transportation Management Association (TMA) of Delaware and University of Delaware Cooperative Extension.

TMA volunteers refurbished more than 125 bicycles donated to riders in the Cape Region. This year most of the bikes were taken to work locations instead of being given directly to students in hopes the bikes would be returned so they can be refurbished and be reused next year.

Pezone said at least 1,000 people stopped at the checkpoints this year. About 900 light sets, 200 helmets and 1,000 feet of reflective tape – called branding tape – were dispensed.
He said most of the funding for this year’s checkpoints came from the sponsors, but dwindling resources will require solicitation of funding from other sources for next year’s checkpoints.

Pezone said checkpoints provide an opportunity for dialog with DelDOT, we well as the Delaware State Police and the TMA. “We are working together with the same goal,” he said.

Pezone said bad riding habits are getting changed. Just a few years ago it was not uncommon to see cyclists riding against traffic on the wrong side of the road and riding at night without lights or reflectors.

Now those bad habits are the exception and not the rule. “Even when we stop someone who has been riding on the wrong side of the road, they always tell us they know it – we get no argument,” he said.

And more people are riding with helmets, even though many still choose not to. “We were surprised this year because we gave away every helmet we had and could have given away more,” Pezone said.

Fewer riders on Route 1

Aglio, who has been involved with the program from the start and works at most checkpoints with his daughter, Maci, said he noticed a decline in the number of cyclists this year compared to previous years.

He attributes that to a combination of factors, including fewer foreign students working in the area, fewer jobs available and more people using public transportation.

“We saw more bikes parked at the park-n-ride than ever before, so people were using the buses,” he said. “It could be they had to expand their area to work because there were fewer jobs in the resort area.”

But, he said, there was a lot of contact with foreign students who ride bikes at dinners and breakfasts hosted by the Lewes-Rehoboth Association of Churches.

Roger Roy, TMA executive director, attended two or three meals a week, adjusting brakes and making minor repairs to bikes, Aglio said.

Pezone said more riders are also walking and using the Junction-Breakwater Trail between Rehoboth Beach and Lewes, which keeps them off Route 1.

All of the work during the summer, and planning and repairing bikes during the winter, has one goal in mind: keeping riders safe in the Cape Region.

“At the end of the summer and no one has been killed or there are no serious injuries, then we did what we wanted to do,” Pezone said.

source: capegazette.com